[KateB]

I recently started on the Flat Belly Diet. It is by the people at Prevention Magazine. This has lead me to an interest in a whole foods lifestyle. However I do have a few questions and this seems to be a knowledgable bunch to ask.

I have cut back on my dairy consumption...namely milk (I still eat yogurt and cheese...haven't experimented with non dairy substitutes yet.) I have been drinking original almond breeze almond milk. I really like it!! Can I cook with it? I know there is rice and soy milk too, taste wise are either of these better?? Also from a nutrition standpoint is one better than the other? Any sugggestions on non dairy substitutes for yogurt and cheese? We don't have a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's around here. My options may be limited.

Yesterday I was making Organic Whole Wheat pasta and on the package it said cooking time effects the glycemic index. Can anyone tell me how or why?

While browsing through the "organic food" section of the grocery store I found Synergy Drinks. AThey are 95% Komucha and 5% fruit juice. Full of probiotics. I have added one 8 oz glass a day to my diet plan and have found it has helped with gas issues. DH says it smells rotten and has floaty things in it must be bad. Are the probiotics found in here basically the same in probiotic pills you can buy?

As soon as I post this I will probably thing of a dozen other questions I have had lately. But these are the ones that come to mind most often.

[nelie]

I love almond milk, I use the unsweetened almond milk a lot. I've never tried rice milk because I can't find it unsweetened but rice and soy are certainly options I'd explore if you are looking for non dairy 'milks'.

As for yogurt, I enjoy soy yogurt once in a while. Silk makes unsweetened plain that is delicious mixed with frozen berries. As for cheese, I gave up cheese myself and don't really seek out substitutes.

No idea about pasta, I generally don't eat pasta.

Never heard about synergy drinks.

So that is all I have

[Clue0983]

For a place to compare different things like almond milk vs. soy vs. rice milk try Calorieking. Type that into your browser. I have found it very useful to answer a quick quesiton or to calculate different things. I would say 90% of the site is free. I love it. They also have different restaurant entree's nutritionals, etc.

[LindaT]

I have tried all of the milks, rice soy and almond. The soy seems to have a more earthy flavor than the other two kinds. Not bad, but just it seems stronger to me.

You can get soy cheese at your regular supermarket. At least I can out here. I've also had almond cheese. I like the soy cheese and use that exclusively. The brands I get have no saturated or transfats and do contain good fats. They melt pretty well. Not as well as full fat cheese, but better that fat free dairy IMHO

There are different types of probiotics out there. I get some that come in kefir, but there are also ones that come in other drinks, yogurts as well as in pill forms. The ones in my kefir are differnent than the pill form I was taking so you'll have to cehck the lables on your items to see what it what. Each of us reacts differently to probiotics so one that works for me may not work for you. It's really hit and miss.

Don't know about the pasta. I've never seen that note on my whole wheat pasta package before.

[BlueToBlue]

With regards to the pasta--the length of time it takes your body to digest food impacts the amount it increases your blood sugar (its glycemic index). You can actually lower the impact a high-glycemic food has on your blood sugar by eating it with another food that causes your stomach to process it more slowly (say, something high in fiber). Cooking the pasta longer makes it softer, which probably makes it easier and faster to digest, increasing its glycemic index.

I've been reading the Sugarbusters book and they have a big discussion on the glycemic index of foods and what impacts it.